Dorothea Dix was a mental health reformer and teacher.

She opened a school for girls, back during a time when girls didn’t go to school. When she visited prisons, she realized how terrible and inhumane people with mental illnesses were treated.

Dix impacted how we look at mental health today by advocating for people with mental illnesses (Karli Doney, May 2022).

Between 1843 and 1880, she helped to establish 32 new mental hospitals across the U.S. - including in New York, Indiana, Illinois, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

 Cross-Links

• Disability Rights and Justice Movement

• Helen Keller, Author and Political Activist

Dorothea Dix

A quick biography of Dorothea Dix, from Britannica

Dorothea Dix, from American Journal of Public Health

Click here for another biography of Dorothea Dix from the Science Museum.org. 

Dorothea Dix:  Mental Health Reformer and Civil War Nurse

Additional Biographical Information

Click here to learn more about the Civil War. 

During her life, Dix had also opened a school for young girls, when girls were not allowed to go to public schools.

• Here for a timeline about how women transitioned into becoming teachers.

• Here for a timeline that gives an overview of how education has evolved into what it has become today. 

• Timeline of Dorothea Dix's Life

http://www.softschools.com/timelines/dorothea_dix_timeline/434/ 

• Timeline of Dorothea Dix Hospital in North Carolina, one of the hospitals she helped create. 

Click here to learn more about how Dorothea Dix redefined mental illness. 

 Voices for the Mad: The Life of Dorothea Dix

While Dorothea Dix had taken a job as a teacher within prisons, she observed much about how prisoners were treated.

• Click here for a timeline that reflects prison reforms and how there have been vast changes to the prison system. 

Dix spearheaded a bill to provide federal land to build institutions for the mentally ill.  It was vetoed by President Franklin Pierce

• Link here for information on Franklin Pierce's 1854 Veto

Click here for an article about Nellie Bly titled "The woman who exposed 19th-century New York's inhumane treatment of mental health patients"

March 28, 1841:  Dorothea Dix Begins Her Crusade

Memorial to the Massachusetts Legislature (1843)

Letter from Dorothea Dix to Mary, March 29, 1865

Conversations on Common Things

In 1824, Dix published the textbook Conversations on Common Things. 

Link to the EBook of this Text: https://books.google.com/books/about/Conversations_on_Common_Things_Or_Guide.html?id=2OwXAAAAYAAJ 

Click here for a high school lesson plan about mental illness. 

Click here for an overarching time line that looks at all kinds of different reforms made to in order to better understand mental health. 

 Multimedia Resources

Dorothea Dix on YouTube

Information on Dorothea Dix and some insight given on the history on nursing. 

TEDx Talk on Dorthea Dix and her influence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjbKlo1i49s 

Example of a possible project for students about Dix, 

An animated cartoon depicting her life using the program PowToon :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8zbXl2EAkM&t=30s 

Click here for a 10 minute video about Dorothea Dix. 

Click here to find out more about how Dorothea Dix's reforms apply to today. 

Click here to learn more about other women reformers. 

How We Understand Mental Illness Today:

Click here to learn more about mental illness. 

Click here to learn more about how the treatment of mental illness has changed. 

Click here for a video titled: "Behind Closed Doors: A Look Inside Insane Asylums of the 19th Century"

  Click here for a Tedx Talk video that discusses various things that are not regarded when talking about mental illness.